Shan Biryani Masala1858: British Crown takes control of Indian colony from the British East India CompanyThe British did not enter the colony to acquire new knowledge Indian cuisine “unhygienic” and “unpalatable”Memsahibs and Sahibs employing Indian khansamas or cooksSahibs returning home after India gained their independence in 1947Bombay Bhel Location: 230 Commerce Valley E, Richmond Hill, ON L3T 7Y3Modern day MumbaiChicken BiryaniMake their own masala for the BiryaniChef was from Himancha, AfghanistanLa Sani GrillLocation: 2058 ellesmere Rd #3, Toronto, ON M1H 3B7Islamabad, PakistanSani means plateOnly chicken biryani offeredVery spicy, compared to the other two

The Host Location: 670 Highway 7 E, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3P2Central Indian Fine Cuisine'Upscale Restaurant'Offered Vegetarian, Meat and Fish BiryaniWe had Vegetable BiryaniWebsite ORIGINS- Indian/Pakistani SplitORIGINS- Persians and the Mughal EmpireAffected biryani due to the religious differencesIn India, both meat and vegetarian biryani were equally as important since the Hindu religion has a vegetarian dietWhereas in Pakistan, vegetarian biryani is not that popular, chicken and meat biryani areChallenges encountered?Rescheduling- all but one; fear of being recordedNeeding to translate to EnglishAudio often inaudible!VERY tedious to type up conversationTaking charge of audio Delhi, INDIANames: Poonam and Pyuesh GuptaReligion: HinduTopics Discussed: Length (8 to 24 hours), Parampara packages to save time, Biryani or Pilau?, Vegetarian dish, HyderabadMost interesting part of conversation:Pyuesh: "Basically the most famous biryani is from Hydrabad which is all the Muslims who went south of India, the ones who cook Biryani in Northern India, which are the Kashmiri, they use lots of saffron, because saffron is basically grown in Kashmir. And the ones in Hydrabad, basically the bay leaves and cinnamon sticks are grown. So all these ingredients is basically used in terms of what is available at that time. If you want to eat Hydrabadi biryani, you get a lot of bay leave flavour, if you want kashmiri, you get a lot of saffron flavour, if you want Bombay biryani, you get mostly nutmeg and anise seed and cardamom, that’s for Bombay. And it’s all different because of what is grown in that area." Hyderabad, INDIANames: Mr. and Ms. JeelaniReligion: IslamTopics Discussed: Availability of spices in Toronto, Raitha, Definition of authenticMost interesting part of conversation:

• Fried onions 200 grams• Ginger garlic paste 100 grams• Mint 1 bunch**• 2 lemons• Astro plain yogurt 200 grams• Saffron 3 pinches• [inaudible] 3 of them• Biryani masala, which is the secret ingredient, I won’t give that away!• Oil 200 grams• Ghee which is butter 50 grams"Karachi, PAKISTANName: Kauser KhanReligion: IslamTopics Discussed: Cooking biryani weekly, special ingredient= red plum, possible reason for split of India/Pakistan and how biryani spreadMost Interesting part of conversation: Yoser: That’s very interesting I haven’t heard that before. In terms of the shan biryani packets, do you find it time saving?Kauser: It saves time, it gives good flavour, but I think it’s better to use our own, cause then we know there is no health hazard since we’re using our own spices. But it tastes good!.... Don’t forget that back home or other third world countries, they add different colours, which are not safe. Sometimes they add dye, the same dye that they use to dye clothes, which causes cancer. Which is why cancer spreads more easily in that area…There are restrictions when they are importing the Shan biryani masala to these [Western] countries. Of course, we get the best quality. Back home, there is no quality for them.

Ms. Raja: "This type of food is what they cook, but naturally there are changes. I mean you are living here, and you are eating their food [the west] but naturally you will change it to your taste."

"The Shan Biryani Masala is an optimized mix of ground spices and herbs that you can use to quickly prepare a wonderfully aromatic and flavourful dish of biryani rice. Suitable for use with beef, chicken or mutton, this Shan biryani masala is available in a fifty gram pack. A recipe with easy to follow directions is available on the back which requires basic and easily available ingredients. You can save time and minimize the irritation required in having to identify the spices required and measuring them out by using the Shan biryani masala. Recipe in Urdu, Hindi, Arabic & Bangla inside. "

Study completed on Banglore, India and Banglore Indians in Boston US stated that "embracing the use of packaged goods explains how loose concepts were far greater than losing their identity"

Reference: http://shop.khanapakana.com/shan-biryani-masala-50-grams/ In the 16th century, Indian food traces back to Persian ancestors as Mughals brought back Persian and Afghan cooks to North India. They introduced rice dishes such as pilaffs and biryanis. This was maintained by Nizams (hereditary rulers of Hyderabad city) but Nizams continued to "perfect" and "develop" style of cooking with biryani. Evidence from writings of Nizams such as Babar, Hammayun and Akbarhttps://biryani101.wordpress.com/Does authenticity exist?